Category Archives: berlusconi

International relations

Posted on February 12, 2009 by Charles Lambert

Barack Obama finally called Berlusconi yesterday. He ordered four pizzas with peperoni and two bottles of Nastro Azzurro.

Posted in barack obama, berlusconi | 4 Comments

Death and the state

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Charles Lambert

Last December I posted on the case of Eluana Englaro, an Italian woman who had been in a state of vegetative coma for the past seventeen years, following a car accident when she was twenty. After years of legal to-ing … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, englaro, human rights, vatican | 3 Comments

Boys will be boys

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Charles Lambert

If you look in an English-Italian dictionary for a translation of the word ragazzo, you’ll find ‘boy’, followed by ‘boyfriend’, ‘young man’. Italians of all ages frequently use the word to address a group of friends, the irony more evident … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, italy, journalism | Leave a comment

What I’d like to do to Berlusconi (while we still can)

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Charles Lambert

You may already know this, but I’ve just discovered a whole sub-genre on YouTube of actions being filmed in slow motion. I had no idea. Some of them are intensely lyrical. Others aren’t. This one, for example, isn’t. http://www.youtube.com/v/cWGn6_EH2gM&hl=en&fs=1

Posted in berlusconi | 2 Comments

Economising

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Charles Lambert

According to today’s Repubblica, sales of the Economist around the Italian parliament buildings have plummeted since Berlusconi returned to power. I wonder why. The new deputies and senators aren’t buying the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal either. Maybe … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, reading | Leave a comment

Carnevale (no, not that one)

Posted on October 13, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Only yesterday, Italy’s minister of justice ‘Choochieface’ Alfano was talking about rejuvenating the judiciary. Now it appears there are plans to pass one of those ad personam laws for which Italy is becoming sadly famous (or would be if the … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, corruption, justice, mafia | Leave a comment

Red

Posted on October 11, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Yesterday in Rome, the horribly disorganised and fragmented Italian left still managed to pull together something like 250,000 people to walk Rome’s streets in protest against the Lodo Alfano, the law that gives judicial immunity to the holders of the … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, politics | Leave a comment

Very important people

Posted on September 13, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Silvio Berlusconi will be making a state visit to George Bush mid-October to discuss world affairs. I don’t know who’s most likely to benefit from this, given that one is totally discredited at home and abroad, while the other has … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, election, USA | 2 Comments

Contempt

Posted on September 12, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Italian actress, comedian and satirist Sabina Guzzanti‘s in trouble. The last time old broom (read: Berlusconi) swept clean (read: ensure that all critical voices on state television had their contracts pulled from under them) she must have been on sabbatical … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, pope, sabina guzzanti, zapatero | Leave a comment

Football

Posted on September 4, 2008 by Charles Lambert

You may have noticed the conspicuous absence of football from this blog. One of the funniest, and most shocking, moments at the start of each new academic year is the one in which I’m outed by students as someone who … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, fascism, sport | 2 Comments